Deportation a 'death sentence' for Guatemalan family living in Edmonton

The family said a translator for their lawyer lied about delivering the papers needed for residency and, as rejected refugee claimants and undocumented migrants since 2011, their new application awaits review

News conference with the family of Yolanda Duarte Martinez and Jilmar Picon Pineda who have been ordered to be deported from Canada to Guatemala. The family of seven living in Edmonton had applied for refugee status but that was denied. The parents fear for their safety in Guatemala. Their five children are being deported to the United States.

A Guatemalan family living in Edmonton is set to be torn apart and deported.

The family signed papers of their deportation Tuesday morning at an immigration office in Edmonton. On July 10, the family’s four youngest children will return to the United States where they have citizenship. The parents and oldest son will be deported back to Guatemala two days later, the difference in dates to allow the parents to say goodbye to their children.

“There are people looking out for us (in Guatemala) who want us to die,” said Jilmar David Picon through a friend, Adriana Hernandez, who acted as a translator Tuesday. “That’s what we were running away from.”

Picon, his wife Yolanda Duarte Martinez and his oldest son, Edison, will return to a town near the Central American country’s western border with Mexico.

“I was beaten by the gang members and I was shot at,” Picon said about why he fears for his life in Guatemala.

The family said they were scammed by a former co-worker of Martinez’s who worked as a translator between them and a lawyer to help apply for permanent residency on compassionate and humanitarian grounds. In November 2016, the Canadian Border Services Agency notified the family none of the documents required for the application had been submitted. They haven’t heard from Martinez’s co-worker since.

The family first arrived in Canada in 2011 from the United States, where they lived as undocumented migrants. The youngest four children were born in Alabama. The family applied for refugee status here, but the application and an appeal were both denied.

A new application for permanent residency has been received by the Canadian government, but has not been reviewed. The family is pleading with federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen and local members of Parliament to assist in having their dates of deportation pushed back to allow time for their application to be reviewed.

“Before, I had money to pay off the gangs when they requested money, but now I don’t have any money. When I was in the United States, I received a call and they told me they were waiting for my return,” Picon said.

Picon said he has proof family members who didn’t flee Guatemala were killed and that signing the deportation documents Tuesday was like “signing my son’s death sentence, signing my wife’s death sentence.”